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The Party of "No"

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where they have "community powered support for Technorati".

Well, they're "sorta, kinda" indexing me anyway. It's on a 24 hour tape
delay or something. So I never get picked up by Memeorandum because they
pull from Technorati and Technorati has stuff I posted yesterday
listed as my latest blog entry. And that's old news to Memeorandum.

Wankers.

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It's almost midnight. There's a "deal," but it's a really crummy deal and
unlike feckless crapweasel Mitch McConnell I'm not a fan of tax hikes
today for the promise of spending cuts tommorrow, maybe. So we'll go
over the fiscal cliff, and here's why I think that's the best possible
outcome. I wrote this earlier today when tbe prospect of a deal was
fading. Given the last minute machinations I still believe that scuttling
a lousy deal is better than accepting whatever shit sandwich Dear Leader
tries to shove down our throats.

Why? Because it's time for his minions to feel the pain too. They need
to experience the effects of their perfidy. This is where we separate
the men from the boys.

Hey Obamabots, how's it feel to have to pay for your Dear Leader's Big
Government dreams? You aren't feeling the pain yet? Don't worry, you will.
Welcome to the party, because your taxes just went up, and all I can
say is, it's about
damned time.

During Obama's first term, federal spending grew to more than 24 percent of GDP
— the highest it has been since 1946. Yet almost no one in the country
(except smokers and those who frequent indoor tanning salons) saw their taxes
rise. Quite the opposite: 160 million Americans saw their payroll taxes reduced
from 6.2 to 4.2 percent.

How can we expect people to care about the growth of government if it doesn't
cost them anything? . . .

So let's do it. Let's all of us experience the true cost of big government in
the form of a bigger tax bill.

It might well be that the biggest mistake Republicans made during Obama's first
term was forcing the president to extend the Bush tax cuts. At the time, it
seemed like a major victory by the newly elected GOP House. But in truth, it
was a victory for Obama. Extending the tax cuts shielded the economy from the
full brunt of of Obama's economic failures and allowed him to put off
job-killing tax increases till his second term. It's ironic. Obama never
passed up an opportunity to blame President Bush for his economic woes,
yet he rode the Bush tax cuts to reelection.

Extending the tax cuts also shielded Americans from the costs of Obama's
spending spree. Shopping on a credit card is fun until the bill comes due.
But if the bill never arrives, what incentive do people have to stop the
spending?

The bill is now due. And guess what? You guys gotta pay it. Sorry suckers.
It's what you voted for.

See, the real debt ceiling is the one eventually imposed by global financial
markets at some point on a profligate Washington. When that happens, Congress
won't be able to raise the ceiling even if it wants to. The only options then
to avoid a financial crisis will be draconian austerity — both massive
tax hikes and brutal entitlement cuts.

It was in all his stump speeches. "Al-Qaeda is on the path to defeat and
Osama Bin Laden is dead." My liberal friends liked to rub it in too,
saying Obama is a better wartime president than Bush was because with Al
Qaeda on the run we're safer than ever.

Deep inside caves, in remote desert bases, in the escarpments and cliff faces
of northern Mali, Islamic fighters are burrowing into the earth, erecting a
formidable set of defenses to protect what has essentially become Al Qaeda's
new country.

They have used the bulldozers, earth movers and Caterpillar machines left
behind by fleeing construction crews to dig what residents and local officials
describe as an elaborate network of tunnels, trenches, shafts and ramparts. In
just one case, inside a cave large enough to drive trucks into, they have
stored up to 100 drums of gasoline, guaranteeing their fuel supply in the
face of a foreign intervention, according to experts.

Northern Mali is now the biggest territory held by Al Qaeda and its allies.
And as the world hesitates, delaying a military intervention, the extremists
who seized control of the area earlier this year are preparing for a war they
boast will be worse than the decade-old struggle in Afghanistan.

"Al-Qaeda never owned Afghanistan," said former United Nations diplomat Robert
Fowler, a Canadian kidnapped and held for 130 days by Al Qaeda's local chapter,
whose fighters now control the main cities in the north. "They do own northern
Mali."

Turbaned fighters now control all the major towns in the north, carrying out
amputations in public squares like the Taliban did. Just as in Afghanistan,
they are flogging women for not covering up. Since taking control of Timbuktu,
they have destroyed seven of the 16 mausoleums listed as world heritage sites.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQIM, operates not just in Mali, but
in a corridor along much of the northern Sahel. This 4,300-mile long ribbon of
land runs across the widest part of Africa, and includes sections of Mauritania,
Niger, Algeria, Libya, Burkina Faso and Chad.

"One could come up with a conceivable containment strategy for the Swat Valley,"
said Africa expert Peter Pham, an adviser to the U.S. military's African command
center, referring to the region of Pakistan where the Pakistan Taliban have been
based. "There's no containment strategy for the Sahel, which runs from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea."

If that's a "defeat," I'd hate to see what happens when Al-Qaeda really gets
their act together.

It's too bad that nobody wanted to talk about this kind of stuff before the
election. Because, you know, vaginas.

The victim said that he was undressing to get in the shower while talking to
his girlfriend about getting her eyebrows done, when she asked for him to pay
for doing her laundry, reports said.

He responded that he didn't have money to pay for her laundry, reports said.
He said she became irate and began to scream, reports said.

Then he heard breaking glass, and went to the bedroom where she smashed a
mirror in his bedroom and then put several holes in the screen of the
television set with a hammer, reports said.

When he pleaded with her to stop breaking his possessions, she turned and
charged at him saying, "I'm going to hit you in the head with the hammer,"
reports said.

At that point he fled to the bathroom and called police on his cell phone, reports said. The hammer was recovered from an open kitchen cabinet, reports said.

Obviously we need a one-hammer-a-month policy, with a 10 day waiting period
for new purchases. Let's get Frank Lautenberg to propose a ban on high-capacity
extra-long hammer handles too. We can't be too careful. I demand action, before
the proliferation of unregistered concealed hammers threatens garage and patio
doors too.

In an exclusive interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, his first
appearance since the healthcare debate in 2009, Obama seemed intent on putting
the blame solely on Congressional Republicans, if lawmakers fail to reach the
pivotal year-end deadline.

"I offered not only a trillion dollars in -- over a trillion dollars in
spending cuts over the next 10 years, but these changes would result in even
more savings in the next 10 years, and would solve our deficit problem for a
decade," Obama said, in the interview. "They say that their biggest priority
is making sure that we deal with the deficit in a serious way, but the way
they're behaving is that their only priority is making sure that tax breaks
for the wealthiest Americans are protected. That seems to be their only
overriding, unifying theme."

Call the waambulance!

Obama said GOP negotiators have "had trouble saying 'yes' to a number of
repeated offers."

Seriously? The House has sent him at least two bona fide bills to avert the
fiscal cliff. Harry Reid refuses to even look at them. Boehner then suggested
Nancy Pelosi's tax plan, and Pelosi laughed in his face.

Because that's a spending cut! That is a spending cut, right? Obama
said he's including spending cuts. He wouldn't lie to NBC News, would he?

Of course he would. Dear Leader hasn't changed his position one iota. He's
pushing Marxist class warfare, because he isn't trying to solve a problem,
he's trying to punish success. And the sheeple who
never were very good at math are only too happy to play his game.

When Obama says he needs to raise your taxes to help "the middle class", he
means average, middle-class working stiffs like
Joe Biden.

President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on
federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise. One federal
worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden.

According to
disclosure forms, Biden made a cool $225,521 last year. After the
pay increase, he'll now make $231,900 per year.

Knowing this makes me even prouder to be paying my fair share. Really. Now I
can't wait to go over the fiscal cliff! Because Joe Biden clearly needs that
money more than I do.

You'll be relieved to learn that soliciting a "Friends of Angelo"
below-market-rate mortgage from Countrywide Financial is not
against Congressional ethics rules.
The House Ethics Committee said so yesterday, and it must be true because
we all know how utterly above reproach they truly are.

The House Ethics Committee said Thursday it found no violations among House
members whose mortgage loans went through the VIP section of the former
Countrywide Financial Corp., the company whose subprime loans helped cause
the foreclosure crisis.

The committee said nearly all the allegations of favored treatment involved
loans that were granted so long ago that they fell outside the panel's
jurisdiction. The committee added, however, that participation in the VIP
program did not necessarily mean borrowers received the best loan deal
available — and most lawmakers were not even aware they were placed in
a VIP unit.

But even if the statute of limitations had not run out, the committee said,
inclusion in the VIP program was not by itself a violation of House rules or
laws. The panel said it found that Countrywide's "discounts" applied to
standard loan rates that were commercially available elsewhere.

Ah, the old Statute Of Limitations play. I'm sure the investigation took so
long because they wanted to be thorough, and the stonewalling effect
is merely a pleasant bonus. The important thing to remember though is that
our congressmen are ethical. Completely. You can take that to the
bank.

Her work at the EPA is
done. Jeff Dunetz
chronicles Lisa Jackson's "achievements".

In her almost 4-year tenure we can thank Jackson's work for the prevention of
the Keystone Pipeline,
the loss of thousands of Jobs in the coal industry, Punishing Oil Refineries
for
not using an ingredient that doesn't exist, preventing the use of our own
energy resources and don't forget her biggest "victory," declaring human
exhalation a pollutant (farting also).

A homosexual couple has sued a Christian preschool in New Mexico after the
school had accepted the three-year-old boy the two men are raising as their
son, only to reject the child later. In their complaint the two men, Joseph
Romero and John Keelin, allege that officials at Hope Christian School in
Albuquerque first accepted their three-year-old son, then sent them a denial
letter when the school realized the boy's parents were homosexual.

In the lawsuit, the two men claim that they "were even told that a new student
packet has been prepared for him and that the school was expecting to get
acceptance letters out the following week." But shortly after that notification
, the two "received a denial letter on April 16, 2010," the complaint continues.
"Upon further inquiry, the school sent a letter dated June 13, 2012 to
plaintiffs' attorney. The letter indicated that the school denied admission
to plaintiffs' son because plaintiffs were a same gender couple and that, as
a result, their home was inconsistent with the school's beliefs."

The letter from the school informed the homosexual men that "same gender
couples are inconsistent with scriptural lifestyle and biblical teachings,"
citing Romans 1:26-27 and 1 Corinthians 6:9. The letter pointed out that their
home life "doesn't reflect the school's belief of what a Biblical family
lifestyle is." The letter also explained that because the two parties were
not in agreement on the issue of homosexuality, the educational relationship
would be next to impossible, and cited the scripture Amos 3:3, "How can two
walk together unless they be agreed?"

On its website, Hope Christian School explains that admission "is open to
students of any race, color, or ethnic origin who are looking for a Christian
environment with an emphasis on teaching Biblical principles and truths along
with strong academics."

They're out to destroy Christianity. Because it threatens their carnal desires.
And so they find a school, use a three-year-old child as a pawn, and concoct an
elaborate ruse in order to muster their forces of tolerance in
opposition to discrimination. Nevermind that the lessons taught
by Hope Christian School contradict their very existence. Oh no, that's
the next fight. After they force their way into the school it'll
be only minutes before the teachings presented in the classroom come under
fire too.

Thou Shalt Worship At The Altar Of Eros, and bow down before the power of
the state — God be forsaken! — lest a pair of deviants
be required to adapt their chosen lifestyle to 6,000 years of Judeo-Christian
orthodoxy. Better to destroy the churches! Homosexuality is the future! It's
fun for the whole family!

One cannot square this circle. You can't practice both homosexuality and
Christianity. They are incompatible. And thus it is the homosexual's demand
that Christianity must change. Their warped sense of "equality" requires it.
Otherwise they might feel bad, and we all know how important it is to respect
the feelings of every aggrieved minority.

That slippery slope? It's more like an avalanche. Up next, Adam and Steve sue
Saint Patrick's for the "right" to sashay down the aisle. And a shit-for-brains
liberal judge will say "do it", or else. Because we must tolerate them, but
they'll never tolerate us.

Not everyone can put up 54 Christmas trees and then ditch them to jet off on a
$4 million dollar Hawaiian vacation.
In fact, most people couldn't afford to do very much Christmas shopping at
all this year.

U.S. holiday retail sales this year were the weakest since 2008, when the
nation was in a deep recession. In 2012, the shopping season was disrupted
by bad weather and consumers' rising uncertainty about the economy.

A report that tracks spending on popular holiday goods, the MasterCard Advisors
SpendingPulse, said Tuesday that sales in the two months before Christmas
increased 0.7 percent, compared with last year. Many analysts had expected
holiday sales to grow 3 to 4 percent.

In 2008, sales declined by between 2 percent and 4 percent as the financial
crisis that crested that fall dragged the economy into recession. Last year,
by contrast, retail sales in November and December rose between 4 percent and
5 percent, according to ShopperTrak, a separate market research firm. A 4
percent increase is considered a healthy season.

I'm sure this is somehow George Bush's fault.

The numbers also show how Washington's current budget impasse is trickling down
to Main Street and unsettling consumers. If Americans remain reluctant to spend,
analysts say, economic growth could falter next year.

Holiday sales are a crucial indicator of the economy's strength. November and
December account for up to 40 percent of annual sales for many retailers. If
those sales don't materialize, stores are forced to offer steeper discounts.
That's a boon for shoppers, but it cuts into stores' profits.

Hey, Obamunism says profits are bad! And so we have Trickle Up Misery!

Clearly the solution to this problem is to raise taxes. For the children.

During an appearance this morning on ABC's news program "This Week," Cory
Booker lambasted what he called "a false debate" over gun control that has
intensified in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting.

"I'm not afraid of law-abiding citizens who buy a gun," he said. "Buy the guns
you want. What the problem is in America right now is that a terrorist person
who is on the no-fly list could go into the secondary market today and buy a
weapon."

"Listen to me, the people dying in Chicago, the people dying in Newark are not
being done with law-abiding gun owners," Booker continued. "We do not need to
go after the guns. A law-abiding mentally stable American, that's not America's
problem."

Do you think we can get Booker into the Senate now? Why should he have
to wait until next year to replace Frank knee-jerk-banner-of-scary-looking-stuff
Lautenberg? Everything Frank thinks he knows about guns he learned from Michael
Moore. Which pretty much tells you all you need to know about Frank Lautenberg's
grip on reality.

Because I'm not seeing the upside to cryin' John Boehner's "leadership" skills.
Maybe Karl Rove could drop me a note explaining the Grand Plan. The GOP does
have a Grand Plan, right? Hello? Is anyone home?

That's what he gets for putting out a
hit list on House Conservatives. Way to think that one through there Johnny.
You really expected our guys to eat your shit sandwich after you fucked us in
the ass?

So thanks for handing all the cards to Obama. You're a real credit to the
Republican party. I wish President Reagan were still alive so he could take
you out behind the woodshed and pound some sense into your thick head.

Pass a 90 day extension of current tax rates and whatever else is needed to
postpone the "cliff," and go home for Christmas to give time for a Grand
Bargain which puts Democratic sacred cows on the table.

Let Harry Reid refuse to bring it to a vote, and Obama refuse to sign it.
Their inaction will be the reason for taxes rising for everyone.

Right now you're the scapegoat Johnny. Which translates into having the GOP
take all the blame when everybody's taxes go through the roof in 11 days.
You know that's what Obama wants by the way. It's what he's wanted all along.
He's determined to drive us off the cliff. And now it's your fault.

Sheesh. Stacy McCain doesn't call you guys The Stupid Party for nothing.

Police took Patrick Burke, who says Moore employs him, into custody after he
declared he was carrying a firearm at a ticket counter. Burke is licensed to
carry a firearm in Florida and California, but not in New York.

See, Moore believes in 2nd Amendment rights for his well-heeled self, but in
typical totalitarian-embracing left-wing fashion, he just doesn't believe in
2nd Amendment rights for the less well off or less politically connected.

Let's see him explain this one while he's busy telling us to give up our guns.

Here's my message to all the anti-gun zealots. You first.

Unilateral disarmament. Hey, it's Barack Obama's official policy when it comes
to our nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. Why not apply it to his own family's
safety? Reopen the White House doors! (Did you know that until the mid 20th
century anyone could just walk in? And "open houses" were regularly
scheduled presidential events until the 1970s?) Let Malia and Sasha walk to
public school like most of the schlubs in Washington, DC have to do. I'm sure
it'll be an eye-opening experience.

And you too Mayor Mike. Stroll the streets of New York unescorted by NYPD.
Interact with your fellow New Yorkers. You might learn something.

As for Michael Moore, super-sized hypocrite extraordinaire? No, I don't
expect him to see the irony in his sophistry. Nor do I expect his sycophantic
fans to demand he practice what he preaches. Hollywood is very good at
disseminating propaganda. But much like our political elites, they believe
they're better than us and the rules don't apply to them.

It's time to bench Rex Ryan. And GM Mike Tannenbaum. Signing Fumbles to that
outlandish contract extension ($8.25 million guaranteed next season)
was undoubtedly the dumbest move ever made by a team that invented
the dumb move.

Is Greg McElroy our guy? Who the hell knows! But he's Not Mark Sanchez, and
that's what the Jets need right now. Actually it's what the Jets needed on
Monday night, when he just might have done what a quarterback is supposed to
do — throw the ball to his own guys, and hang on to those snaps from
center.

As for Fumbles' guaranteed millions? They should cut him from the team and have
Woody Johnson pay him out of his own pocket. To earn his keep put Sanchez to
work parking cars. Of course, he'd probably screw that up too.

It's all over the news. It's all over Facebook and Twitter too. Gun
Control. Everybody has an opinion. Being that I live in Blue Jersey,
most of those opinions are knee-jerk liberal shibboleths about "evil assault
weapons." I swear that the New York Times must print up little index
cards for their progbot readership to carry around so everybody can spout
the same tired old talking points at a moment's notice.

They call it "having a conversation" about gun control. I call it "agitprop."

So as a Public Service, and to help speed things along for those of you
who intend to confront me at the first available opportunity (after all,
I am the Designated Right Wing Extremist in the neighborhood), here's how
one goes about modifying the Second Amendment.

Step 1. Read Article V of the U.S. Constitution.

Step 2. Decide on how you'd phrase your New and Improved Second Amendment.
Be very specific. You wouldn't want to confuse future Supreme
Courts! We can't be having any more Emanations Of Penumbras when it comes
to the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Especially since you're
determined to infringe that particular enumerated
Constitutional Right.

Step 3. Convince 2/3 of the Congressman in the House of Representatives to
vote for your proposed revision. Then convice 2/3 of our U.S. Senators to
vote for it too.

Alternate Step 3. Convince 2/3 of the State Legislatures to convene a
Constitutional Convention for the purpose of revising the Second Amendment.
But beware, a Constitutional Convention can take up any issue it
feels is warranted, even issues you might not want it to consider. Like
abortion. And marriage. And taxes.

Step 4. Submit the proposed New and Improved Second Amendment (plus whatever
else might have come out of Alternate Step 3) to each of the 50 State
Legislatures. Then convince 3/4 of those State Legislatures to ratify it.
That's 38 states for those of you who failed remedial math.

Alternate Step 4. Convene individual Constitutional Conventions in each of
the 50 states. Convince 3/4 of those conventions to ratify your New and
Improved Second Amendment.

Really. That's how you do it. That's how you have a "conversation" about
gun control. Anything else is just so much hot air. I mean seriously, what
part of "shall not be infringed" is unclear? You guys certainly know how
to elasticize "Congress shall make no law" regarding "establishment"
of religion. Tie it in knots, you do. So give the Second Amendment the
same broad-brush applicability that you presume for the First. It's only
fair.

A Facebook friend asked: well then, what restrictions would you accept?

And I said, nuclear weapons. Probably. Certainly anything above one megaton
or so. After all, there's no such thing as being too prepared. And
I really, really, really want my own F-16.

We buy our Christmas tree from the same nursery every year. Guy's been in
business forever, he knows his market. In years past a 9+ ft frasier fir
has set me back anywhere from $120 to $150. And they sell out fast.

It's been a hectic month and we missed what we thought was our "window"
to buy a big tree. Because a week before Christmas always means all the
nice big ones are long gone. So imagine my surprise when I drove by this
morning and saw he had a whole bunch of big trees still for sale.

They were marked at $90 and $100.

I pointed at the biggest one and he immediately said, without prompting,
I'll let you have it for $80.

Wow. It's 8 days before Christmas. He's discounting? I was
expecting to pay that much for a 6 or 7 footer.

So I asked, what's going on?

Nobody's buying, he said. The big ones aren't moving this year.

Up the road a ways there's one of those pop-up Christmas tree lots, every
tree $24.95! He's stripped clean, with only a few scraggly ones left in
the corner.

I'm also noticing fewer houses with elaborate outdoor decorations. Electricity
rates have necessarily skyrocketed dontcha know. But Dear Leader has
54 Christmas trees in the White House. So there's at least one family
who's not having a bleak Christmas. As for the rest of us, well it can't be
good when Santa starts tightening his belt, can it?

It was like watching the Heidi Bowl again. NBC cut from Sunday Night Football
to Dear Leader. Because whatever he had to say couldn't be broadcast on one of
their 47 other cable channels. Sheesh, that's MSDNC's raison d'etre for
gosh sakes, put Rachel Madcow on it and leave us football fans alone.

But instead of watching the Niners score and force a New England turnover we
were treated to more bloviation from that dipshit some of you decided should
still be our president. Thanks for that, by the way, voting for him really put
you at the top of my Christmas list for sure.

I thought the NFL had rules about this sort of thing, to make sure we get to
see all of the game. So how about they find a channel to air their
games that doesn't swap sports for politics. Perhaps one where nobody's ever
heard of Bob Costas.

The Obama Administration
needs to know what you're doing and saying on the bus.

Transit authorities in cities across the country are quietly installing
microphone-enabled surveillance systems on public buses that would give
them the ability to record and store private conversations, according to
documents obtained by a news outlet.

The systems are being installed in San Francisco, Baltimore, and other cities
with funding from the Department of Homeland Security in some cases, according
to the Daily, which obtained copies of contracts, procurement requests, specs
and other documents.

The use of the equipment raises serious questions about eavesdropping without
a warrant, particularly since recordings of passengers could be obtained and
used by law enforcement agencies.

It also raises questions about security, since the IP audio-video systems can be
accessed remotely via a built-in web server (.pdf), and can be combined with
GPS data to track the movement of buses and passengers throughout the city.

Remember when the civil libertarians went
berserk because George Bush tried to peek at a few library records? Yet
Dear Leader clearly wants to follow our every move, and there's nary a peep.

No doubt he'll be adding the bus surveillance tapes to
our permanent record. Oh, you didn't know that Eric Holder has a dossier on
every man, woman, and child in the United States?

The Commonwealth Fund, a privately funded, New York-based health research
clearinghouse, looked at premiums across the conutry and found the average
cost of a family health insurance plan is just above $15,000 — up 62
percent since 2003.

Median family income rose only 11 percent during the same time period, the
report said.

In New Jersey, average premiums for a single payer have risen to $5,673 —
up from $3,814 in 2003. For a family, the price has gone up to $15,589 —
up from $10,168. All while incomes in the Garden State have basically stagnated
in the last decade.

And it's not just premiums that increase. Because employers must pay more for
healthcare, there is less money to be doled out in raises to employees.

The study's author's believe that the Affordable Care Act makes small steps
toward reduce the rate with which costs increase, but predicts they will still
rise far faster than median income.

Obamacare: You get less than half the value at more than twice the price!

Then there's all the crippling taxes buried in Obamacare's fine print. They
had to pass the bill to find out what's in it dontcha know. And when they found
out,
they weren't happy.

Sixteen Democratic senators who voted for the Affordable Care Act are asking
that one of its fundraising mechanisms, a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices
scheduled to take effect January 1, be delayed. Echoing arguments made by
Republicans against Obamacare, the Democratic senators say the levy will cost
jobs — in a statement Monday, Sen. Al Franken called it a "job-killing
tax" — and also impair American competitiveness in the medical device
field.

Wait, raising taxes kills jobs? Why wasn't I informed!

Oh, I see, raising taxes on people who vote for Al Franken kills jobs. Raising
taxes on Republicans? That's patriotic!

Chalk up the "Affordable" Care Act as yet another one of those government
oxymorons like "military intelligence" or "bureaucratic efficiency". They're
from the government and they're here to help you go broke.

The Obama Department of Homeland Security knew about him, but instructed
federal agents not to arrest him until after Election Day.

Surprised? Because I'm not. Laws don't apply to powerful Democrats. Especially
laws which Dear Leader and said powerful Democrat don't want enforced anyway.
So, on the off chance that the people of New Jersey would actually hold this
little indiscretion against a stand-up guy like Bob Menendez, Dear Leader gets
DHS to sweep it under the rug until after the election.

It's good to have friends!

ICE agents finally arrested the guy this week. Presumably so they can get him
cleaned up for the parade Menendez and La Raza plan to throw in his honor.

What? You thought they were gonna deport him? Nah, that'd be racist
or something.

Sven is on a trip to Hong Kong. He arrives at the airport and exchanges $125
US Dollars for Hong Kong Dollars. If he gets 7.79 Hong Kong Dollars for each
US Dollar, how many Hong Kong Dollars does Marcus get?

Who the hell is Marcus?

Maybe he's the guy who mugged Sven.

And what moron goes to Hong Kong with only a buck twenty five in his pocket
anyway? Sven deserved to get mugged! He was probably waving his money
around like a fool yelling "I'm rich, I'm rich!"

At this point we were laughing so hard we had to take a 5 minute break.

Young boys across the country have trailed their female classmates in language
arts proficiency for at least four decades, but over the last four years, the
gender gap in New Jersey's public schools has widened, test results released
last week show.

Between 2009 and 2012, the percentage of fourth-grade girls who passed the
reading section of the annual NJ ASK test held at about 65 percent, while
the share of boys who passed declined by 8.1 percentage points.

This year, nearly half of the state's fourth-grade boys failed the test.

Male students' declining reading proficiency is evident to some degree in every
grade and in every demographic subgroup, according to superintendents, who said
they don't understand why this is happening or how to solve the problem.

Even as the language arts gap has grown, the disparity in math scores has
almost disappeared. For decades, male students outscored their female
counterparts, but girls have now caught up.

"The stereotypes don't hold true anymore," said North Brunswick Superintendent
Brian Zychowski. "Our girls are scoring just as high as boys in math, but the
boys are struggling with reading. I don't know why. I can't explain it."

Not only can't they explain it, they're not too interested in finding out
why either.

Though state Department of Education officials are aware of the gap between
male and female student proficiency in reading, they have no plans to address
male student achievement specifically, said Barbara Morgan, a department
spokeswoman.

"We want all of our students to retain proficient scores in math and language
arts at all grade levels," Morgan said.

Aaron Pallas, a professor of sociology and education at Columbia University's
Teachers College, said the shift in fourth-grade males' reading performance in
recent years may not be cause for concern, but certainly indicates a need for
further analysis.

Of course if it was girls doing worse than boys you can guarantee the educrats
would be concerned. Because there'd be feminuts rampaging in the
streets. And if minority kids' reading scores were dropping like
a rock, well the good old Education Law Center would be throwing a fit in
front of our State Supreme Court so fast it'd make your head spin.

But boys? Nothing to see here, there's no cause for concern, it's
just The Way Things Are. Boys aren't a Designated Minority Victim
Group. There's no Title IX for boys. Let 'em fall behind! Probably
serves 'em right anyway. You know, for all those years they were ahead of
the girls.

Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too.
It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with
pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of
dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to
be passed on to workers.

"Especially at a time when we are facing economic uncertainty, (companies will)
be hit with a multi-million dollar assessment without getting anything back for
it," said Sheaks, a principal at Buck Consultants, a Xerox subsidiary.

Based on figures provided in the regulation, employer and individual health
plans covering an estimated 190 million Americans could owe the per-person fee.

Most of the money will go into a fund administered by the Health and Human
Services Department. It will be used to cushion health insurance companies
from the initial hard-to-predict costs of covering uninsured people with
medical problems. Under the law, insurers will be forbidden from turning
away the sick as of Jan. 1, 2014.

People with pre-existing conditions don't want insurance. They want
someone to pay their medical bills. And thanks to Obamacare, that someone is
you and me.

Barack Obama doesn't love this country. Never has, never will. Anyone who paid
attention already knew he wasn't patriotic. Before he was elected, Obama didn't
hold his hand up for the pledge of Allegiance. He made a big deal out of not
wearing a flag pin. He sat in Jeremiah Wright's anti-white, anti-Semetic,
anti-American church for 20 years which is something no one who loved their
country would ever do. He spent his first term apologizing for America and
bowing to dictators.

Don't hold back John, tell us how you really feel.

But what did you expect?
Obama embraced Code Pink. You know, those fun-loving gals who
support our troops, when they shoot their officers.

Chrysler workers who were fired or suspended two years ago after a MyFoxDetroit
investigation found them drinking and goofing off during lunch break are back
on the job.

MyFoxDetroit first aired the footage of the Chrysler workers in September 2010.
Video showed them in a park during the work day, drinking alcohol from bottles
covered in brown paper bags and smoking what appeared to be marijuana.

With the auto giant having recently received a federal taxpayer bailout, and
President Obama having visited the plant where the employees worked just months
earlier, Chrysler appeared to take a zero-tolerance attitude. The company fired
13 workers, and suspended two.

But MyFoxDetroit reports that following a union-backed arbitration process, the
employees were reinstated. This week, they came back to work.

The employees work at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant, which builds Jeep
Cherokees.

Unions, protecting their members' right to drink and build the cars you drive.

Chrysler said in a statement that it does not support the decision to bring
back the workers but would like to move on.

What choice does Government Motors have? The unionistas rule the roost. But
you? You have a choice. And if you're dumb enough to buy a Jeep Cherokee,
don't be surprised when the wheels fall off.

Chris Christie and other Northeast governors went hat-in-hand to Washington
this week seeking federal funds to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy. And President
Big Spender readily agreed,
proposing $60.4 Billion in immediate aid.

President Barack Obama formally asked Congress Friday for $60.4 billion to help
states such as New Jersey and New York rebuild in the aftermath of devastating
Superstorm Sandy.

"Our Nation has an obligation to assist those who suffered losses and who lack
adequate resources to rebuild their lives," acting Office of Management and
Budget Director Jeffrey Zients said in a letter to Republican House Speaker
John Boehner and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

As for that "our nation has an obligation" thing, here's what Democrat
Grover Cleveland(born right here in Caldwell, NJ) had to say about
that:

I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution and I do
not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be
extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly
related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard
the limited mission of this power and duty should I think be steadfastly
resisted to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that though
the people support the government the government should not support the people.

Amen Brother.

If you want to encourage redevelopment then invite private investment and
incentivize them with tax breaks. Chris Christie keeps saying the Jersey
Shore is so "vital", well then entrepreneurs ought to be chomping at the
bit to invest in its future. Banks can underwrite loans, leave the taxpayers
out of it. And if you didn't have insurance or can't afford to rebuild? Sorry,
but you chose poorly and that's not my problem.

Any Congressman who votes for this boondoggle isn't serious about cutting the
deficit or reducing the size of government. It's time to stop paying lip
service to austerity and to start making the hard decisions. Otherwise, why
bother complaining about anything the government spends money on?

A stunning
57 percent of Americans believe Barack Obama is doing a good job.

A month after the bitterly fought election, President Barack Obama has his
highest approval ratings since the killing of Osama bin Laden, according to
an Associated Press-GfK poll, and more Americans say the nation is heading in
the right direction now than at any time since the start of his first term.

Obama's approval rating stands at 57 percent, the highest since May 2011, when
U.S. Navy SEALs killed the terror leader, and up 5 percentage points from
before the election. And 42 percent say the country is on the right track,
up from 35 percent in January 2009.

Governor Christie has vetoed legislation that would have set up a state-run
health exchange needed to implement the federal Affordable Care Act in New
Jersey.

Though the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed a bill to have the state
run its own exchange, New Jersey under Christie, a Republican, had been one
of several states delaying a final decision.

Christie said in a statement released Thursday afternoon that the federal
government hadn't provided "all the necessary information" he needed to make
decision.

"Any other action than this would be fiscally irresponsible," Christie said
in a statement.

"Thus far, we lack such critical information from the federal government," he
said. "I will not ask New Jerseyans to commit today to a state-based exchange
when the federal government cannot tell us what it will cost, how that cost
compares to other options, and how much control they will give the states over
this option that comes at the cost of our state's taxpayers."

Will the feds be ready to provide an insurance exchange in all of the states
that don't have one on October 1, 2013?

I have no idea. And neither does anyone else I talk to inside the Beltway. We
only hear vague reports that parts of the new federal exchange information
systems are in testing.

The former CIA director couldn't get away with an affair in this town but the
Obama administration has a complete lid on just where they are on health
insurance exchanges and haven't shown any willingness to want to talk about
their progress toward launching on time — except to tell us all not to worry.

We are all worried. I would not want to be responsible for the work that
remains and only have ten months to do it…

This is happening as states develop the requirements for insurance under
Obamacare. Chiropractors and acupuncturists are lobbying to make sure that
their services are included among the "essential" services that the new
insurance must provide.

Also, infertility treatments. Which kinda goes against that whole free birth
control shibboleth, but hey, nobody ever said liberals had to obey logic.

Good for Governor Christie. The less we have to do with this trainwreck the
better off we'll be.

According to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, if President Obama drives us over
the Fiscal Cliff,
it'll be New Jersey residents who'll bear the brunt of the pain.

New Jersey residents would be the hardest hit in the nation, with the average
family of four paying an extra $6,933. That same family in Connecticut would
ante up an extra $6,653 and in New York, $4,103, according to the nonpartisan
research group Tax Foundation.

And that's on top of the $2,200 bucks each of us loses if the payroll tax
cut expires too.

I can't wait to see the look on my liberal friends' faces when reality bites
them in the ass. "I don't mind paying a little more!" is a familiar
retort to my anti-tax protestations. Well then, I hope their definition of
"a little more" is north of 11 grand. Otherwise, oops.

As a wise man once said, be careful what you wish for, you might get it.

Citigroup said yesterday it will cut 11,000 jobs, in a bold, early move by new
CEO Michael Corbat.

Six of Citigroup' 31 branches in New Jersey will be among the casualties,
according to spokeswoman Catherine Pulley.

The branches — in Bayonne, Brick, East Hanover, Nutley, Roseland and
Springfield — will close by Dec. 14.

Prior to yesterday's announcement, Citi had been consolidating operations in
New Jersey. It was in the process of closing a Weehawken-based technology
office and moving the office's 88 jobs to other locations, Citi spokeswoman
Janis Tarter said in October.

The 11,000 cuts nationwide amount to about 4 percent of Citi's workforce. The
bulk of them, about 6,200 jobs, will come from Citi's consumer banking unit,
which handles everyday functions like branches and checking accounts.

Citi said it will sell or scale back some of its overseas operations and focus
on 150 cities around the world "that have the highest growth potential in
consumer banking."

The bank, the third-largest in the country by assets, said about 1,900 job cuts
will come from the institutional clients group, which includes the investment
bank. The company will also cut jobs in technology and operations by using more
automation and moving jobs to "lower-cost locations."

And why is Citi losing money? Remember Fauxcahontas and her Consumer Financial
Protection Board? Now with Marxist Richard Cordray driving the regulatory bus?
And the clusterfuck that is Dodd-Frank? Well, when you cut off a bank's revenue
stream, the bank needs to cut back. Sorry employees, sucks to be you.

This is what you turkeys voted for when you voted for Obama. Get used
to it. Because the layoffs?
Just started, they have.

A day after the authority hiked cash tolls at its bridges and tunnels to a
staggering $13, a watchdog group revealed Monday that the most senior Port
Authority cops are paid an average of $83.99 an hour — dwarfing the
$58.86 earned by their counterparts at the NYPD.

Port Authority pay also beats the $63.68 hourly earnings of comparable New York
State troopers and the $53.36 hourly pay of New Jersey troopers.

It's more than cops in Jersey City and Newark earn — and beats the
salaries of federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
agents in the region.

And that's just their average salary.
Padding overtime is a time-honored tradition at the Port Authority PD. So
much so that the officers actually
flaunt their enormous paychecks, daring the powers-that-be to try and curb
the abuses. But of course their union won't ever let that happen.

Dear Leader
rejected the GOP's
offer to revisit Simpson-Bowles. Then Erskine Bowles
repudiated his own plan. Because the Democrats never intended to use a
"balanced" approach to the fiscal cliff. Their goal all along was to punish
success via class warfare. And they're still plucking that chicken.

Republicans are seriously considering a Doomsday Plan if fiscal cliff talks
collapse entirely. It's quite simple: House Republicans would allow a vote on
extending the Bush middle class tax cuts (the bill passed in August by the
Senate) and offer the President nothing more: no extension of the debt ceiling,
nothing on unemployment, nothing on closing loopholes. Congress would recess
for the holidays and the president would face a big battle early in the year
over the debt ceiling.

Two senior Republican elected officials tell me this doomsday plan is becoming
the most likely scenario. A top GOP House leadership aide confirms the plan is
under consideration, but says Speaker Boehner has made no decision on whether
to pursue it.

Under one variation of this Doomsday Plan, House Republicans would allow a
vote on extending only the middle class tax cuts and Republicans, to express
disapproval at the failure to extend all tax cuts, would vote "present" on the
bill, allowing it to pass.

Leadership? Yeah, the GOP ain't got that. Their "Doomsday Plan" is tailor-made
to ensure doom for Republicans. It gives Obama what he's demanding now (raise
taxes) and punts on any chance at spending cuts. How can they possibly negotiate
concessions next year if they've already proven they're incapable of holding
the line on taxation? Give in now and the Democrats will beat them like a
rented mule for years to come.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., an influential conservative House Republican, is
already on record supporting extending the middle class tax cuts —
with or without the upper income tax cuts. On Sunday, he said Republicans
should embrace the extension of the middle class tax cuts and take credit
for it.

"That's a victory, not a loss," Cole said on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
"And then we're still free to try and fight over higher rates, offering revenue,
which the Speaker has put on the table."

So we get to keep people who basically pay no federal income taxes now from
paying federal income taxes in the future so as to enable them to demand
services and benefits for which they do not pay in a fiscal death spiral in
which there just aren't enough "wealthy" people from whom to confiscate more
money?

You can't tax your way to solvency. But if the GOP really wants to do
"Doomsday", then by golly
let's do Doomsday.

I'm okay with extending all Bush tax rates together with a
Blue State punishing limit on deductions for state income and property
taxes, closing
Hollywood and
tax-exempt loopholes, and maybe some other "loopholes," provided we address
spending. We cannot tax our way to solvency.

News flash. The debt ceiling is not a fall back position. When the media
howls about that, we will fold like a cheap suit.

I say package deal or no deal. A "Grand Bargain" is the term, I believe.
Entitlements and the nanny state on the table, or there is no table.

If a deal can't be reached by year end, the House should pass a 90 day
extension of current rates to give time for the Grand Bargain to play out,
send it to Harry Reid, then leave for Christmas.

Then get the message out that Harry Reid and Obama are the ones holding the
"middle class tax cuts" hostage.

This is no time for the Republicans to go wobbly.
Stand firm. Obama's not driving this bus. Really. All he can do is sign or
veto whatever legislation reaches his golf course desk. The
Constitution stipulates that money bills must originate in the House, ergo even
the Democratic Senate will have to accept, reject or amend whatever the House
sends.

So make 'em an offer they can't refuse. Enact Simpson-Bowles and cobble together
an extension of all the Bush tax cuts, along with those revenue
enhancements I listed above. Get Harry Reid on record defending Hollywood fat
cats and revolving door lobbyists! Democrats want to tax "the rich", except for
Dear Leader's friends. So tax his friends. Hypocrisy is defending a tax cut for
Eva Longoria and George Clooney while advocating a 55% death tax on family
farmers. Point that out. Loudly.

If Obama doesn't sign it, then the fiscal cliff falls squarely on his shoulders.

And if he does? Wow. We just might get headed back down the road to fiscal sanity.
Wouldn't that be great?

These satellites are quickly moving toward the end of their lifespan and their
replacements, part of the forthcoming Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), won't
be launched until 2017, at the earliest.

In the last year, two federal government assessments, along with a third
conducted by a team of outside experts, questioned the program's $12.9 billion
price tag and offered a scathing review of the project's management, describing
it as a bureaucratic logjam that drove up costs and pushed back launch dates.

When you live in New Jersey you acquire a lot of liberal friends. Most of them
are run-of-the-mill New York Times readers, uninformed but harmless,
except when you let them near a voting booth. But then there's the occasional
Michael Moore acolyte — utterly clueless but convinced to the bone that
he's smarter than everyone.

As if.

Anyway, on Saturday night I made a passing comment about the upcoming Fiscal
Cliff, you know, something along the lines of "we don't have a revenue problem,
we have a spending problem."

Mr. Full Of Marxism chimes in — Why do you want to pay Mitt Romney's
taxes? Wow, that must be the latest Rachel Madcow talking point. Because
only a liberal intellectual could envision such a ridiculous statement as being
part of an actual argument.

No, I'm not worried about what Mitt Romney pays, Why does it bother you? And
why should anyone pay more?

He only pays 13 percent! was the followup, as I fixed him with my most
patronizing stare.

Listen up Numbnuts, Mitt Romney paid Two Million Dollars in taxes
last year. You? You haven't paid $2 million dollars to Uncle Sam over your
entire 63 years on God's green earth. Plus Gov. Romney gave updwards of $7
million to charity as well. You? You can't spell charity. You're
on the Joe Biden charity plan — the government's got that covered.
And it pisses you off that a bureacrat didn't get to put his stamp
of approval on how Romney distributed that $7 million. Really, it does.

Then I hear you cry, Mitt Romney makes more than me! He can afford it!

Yeah, Communism 101. From each according to his abilities, to each according
to his needs. You didn't do what it takes to get rich, so now it's time to
soak the guys who worked harder than you did. Why oh sagacious class warrior,
why is it "greed" for me to want to keep what I make, but "altruism" for you
to confiscate my wealth so you can give it to someone else?

Here's a thought. Rather than begrudging Mitt Romney his millions, how about
you try emulating his success? Get. Off. Your. Ass.

Oh, wait. That's hard. Better vote for that Obama dude instead! Then
you can sit on your ass while guys like me and Romney work to pay for your
free stuff.

Wow, that whole tax the rich thing, it doesn't look very lucrative to me.
You might want to check your math. Balanced, it ain't.

See, I heard it's gonna take something like 400 years for the Obama tax hikes
on "the rich" to pay down one year of his budget deficits. Add it all
up and the net result of disrupting so many livelihoods is chickenfeed. It's
obvious that you and Dear Leader aren't even trying to cut the deficit or
fix the economy. You're out to punish success. It's wrong in your
universe for people to make money.

Well, maybe not all people. George Soros, he can make money. Warren Buffett
too. And all those Hollyweird hotshots. But Regular Americans? Those of us
who create jobs and pay the lion's share of taxes? We're Public Enemy Number
One. Because we might use some of our earnings to form a right-wing PAC. Buy
some TV ads. Tell the truth about Dear Leader's plans. Wreck the progressive
gravy train.

If our ideas catch on, well the next thing you know, the masses might start
thinking for themselves. And then what? Self reliance? Initiative?
Liberty? Yeah, that's crazy talk, right?

A billion dollars ain't what it used to be. As Dear Leader jets off for his
$4 million Hawaiian vacation let's pause to compare his household budget to
ours. Because while he claims to be a champion of the proverbial middle class,
he lives like the 0.001%, all on the taxpayer's dime.

Barack Obama and his family cost the taxpayer $1.4 billion per year, according
to a recently published book.

By contrast, the British Royal Family costs less than $60 million each year.

That's slightly more than $3,835,616 dollars a day. And more than 20 times
what Great Britain spends on their Royal Family.

But surely the Obamas are worth it!

Much of the money spent on Mr Obama's family goes to perks such as
entertainment and household expenses.

For example, the White House contains a movie theatre which is manned by
projectionists 24 hours a day in case one of the family feels like a trip
to the cinema.

And even the Obamas' dog Bo costs the taxpayer thousands of dollars - his
handler is reportedly paid over $100,000 a year.

Every "middle class" family has $100K to piss away on a personal dog walker,
right? I guess his lazy ass kids are too important to walk their own
dog. And they're apparently incapable of operating a VCR too.